January 27th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 27, known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, National Chocolate Cake Day and National Geographic Day. Your star sign is Aquarius and your birthstone is Garnet.
2001 – The first Holocaust Memorial Day was held in Britain on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops.
Todays birthdays
1951 – Brian Downey (74), Irish drummer and a founding member of Thin Lizzy (“Whisky In The Jar”, “The Boys Are Back in Town”), born in Dublin, Ireland.
1961 – Gillian Gilbert (64), English musician and member of the band New Order (“Blue Monday”, “Temptation”), born in Whalley Range, Manchester.
1965 – Alan Cumming (60), Scottish actor (GoldenEye, The Good Wife) and TV presenter (Miriam And Alan: Lost In Scotland), born in Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
1972 – Mark Owen (53), English singer – songwriter and a member of the band Take That (“Back for Good”) and his hit (“Four Minute Warning”), born in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
1979 – Rosamund Pike (46), English actress (Jack Reacher, Die Another Day, The World’s End), born in Hammersmith, London.
Famous deaths
2017 – Gorden Kaye (b. 1941), English actor best known for his role as René Artois in the British sitcom television series, ‘Allo ‘Allo!
The day today
1945 – The Nazis’ biggest concentration camp at Auschwitz in south-western Poland was liberated. The millions killed during the Holocaust are remembered each year in services across the UK, as part of Holocaust Memorial Day.
1969 – Hard line Unionist Ian Paisley was jailed for three months along with Ronald Bunting for organising an illegal counter-demonstration against a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Armagh. He was released during a general amnesty for people convicted of political offences.
1989 – Thomas Sopwith, British aircraft designer, died aged 101. Remembered for his Sopwith Camel and Sopwith Pup planes, he also won a £4,000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British built aeroplane, flying 169 miles in 3 hours 40 minutes. His company produced more than 18,000 British World War I aircraft for the allied forces, including 5,747 of the famous Sopwith Camel single-seat fighters. Sopwith was awarded the CBE in 1918.
1993 – Veronica Bland became the first passive smoking worker in the UK to win compensation for damage to her health at work when she agreed to a settlement of £15,000 from Stockport Council in a personal injury claim.
1995 – Manchester United’s Eric Cantona was fined £20,000 and a football ban over his kung fu-style attack on a fan. Cantona was nicknamed ‘King Eric’ by Manchester United fans, and he was voted the club’s greatest ever player by the Inside United magazine.
Today in music
1973 – ‘Superstition’ the lead single from Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book album became his second No.1 single in the US, 10 years after his first No.1 hit. Jeff Beck created the original drum beat while in the studio with Wonder. After writing the song, Wonder offered it to Beck to record, but at the insistence of Berry Gordy, Wonder himself recorded it first. Beck was instead offered ‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers’, which he recorded on his Blow by Blow album in 1975.
1979 – Ian Dury And The Blockheads were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’, their only UK chart topper.
1990 – Kylie Minogue had her third UK No.1 single with ‘Tears On My Pillow’, the song was originally a US hit for Little Anthony and The Imperials in 1958.
1996 – Babylon Zoo started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Spaceman’, the fastest selling single by a debut artist in the UK, (420,000 copies in 6 days). The song was used for a Levi Jeans TV commercial. The single also went to Number 1 in twenty-three other countries.
2015 – Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were given a song writing credit on Sam Smith’s hit ‘Stay With Me’, because of the similarities to his 1989 track ‘I Won’t Back Down’. ‘Stay With Me’ had been nominated for three Grammys, including song of the year – which honours the writers of the track. Petty’s publisher had contacted Smiths publisher who made an out of court settlement.
Today in history
1591 – The death of Dr. John Fian, a Scottish schoolmaster and purported sorcerer from Prestonpans. He and other witches were arrested and extensively tortured (including having his fingernails removed with wooden splints placed into the wounds). The events became known as the North Berwick witch trials. ‘On This Day’ he was finally taken to Castlehill in Edinburgh, placed in a cart, strangled, and burnt.
1606 – The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were charged with treason for attempting to blow up the Houses of Parliament in November 1605.
1671 – Welsh pirate Henry Morgan lands at the gates of Panama City.
1757 – The birth, in Richmond, of Henry Greathead, the pioneering lifeboat builder from South Shields. It took some years before his lifeboat became well known to the public. The first was purchased in 1798 by Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland, for North Shields. By 1802 Greathead’s work was “deemed a fit subject for national munificence” and, over a period of years, 30 more lifeboats followed. Greathead never took out a patent on his invention, and was always willing to share his plans with others for the public good.
1820 – Russian Antarctic expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev discover the continent of Antarctica.